Learn how to run service discovery and a service mesh with Consul
Getting Started
Consul is a networking tool that provides a fully featured service-mesh control plane, service discovery, configuration, and segmentation. Here, learn how to perform common Consul operations locally.
Getting Started with Kubernetes
Consul deployments on Kubernetes offer all the valuable benefits of Consul. Get started with Consul on Kubernetes here.
Consul Installation to Minikube via Helm
8 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes locally using Minikube with the official Helm chart, and configure Connect for an application in your Kuberenets cluster.
Deploy Consul with Kubernetes
8 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes with the official Helm chart, and then reconfigure your running consul installation to allow access to the UI.
Deploy Consul with Kubernetes on Azure
30 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes on Azure with the official Helm chart.
Setup a Secure Development Environment
Learn how to setup a development environment for testing and troubleshooting Consul before going into production.
Consul Installation to Minikube via Helm
8 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes locally using Minikube with the official Helm chart, and configure Connect for an application in your Kuberenets cluster.
Deploy Consul with Kubernetes
8 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes with the official Helm chart, and then reconfigure your running consul installation to allow access to the UI.
Deploy Consul with Kubernetes on Azure
30 minDeploy Consul on Kubernetes on Azure with the official Helm chart.
Operations and Development Tracks
Day 1: Deploying Your First Datacenter
Learn to deploy your first production-ready datacenter. If you are responsible for setting up and maintaining a healthy datacenter, this path will help you do so successfully.
Day 1: Security and Network Operations
Continue securing and configuring your first production-ready datacenter. This path includes a series of guides for securing the cluster and setting up networking.
Introduction
5 minNow that you have deployed your first Consul datacenter, secure it.
Gossip Encryption
10 minLearn how to secure gossip communication between Consul agents for a single datacenter.
Securing Agent Communication with TLS Encryption
12 minLearn how to secure RPC, consensus, and HTTP communication by creating and deploying certificates to Consul agents.
Securing Consul with ACLs
16 minThis guide walks though securing your production Consul datacenter with ACLs.
Managing ACL Policies
13 minIn this guide, you'll learn how to discover the minimum privileges required to complete operations within your Consul datacenter and how to manage access using the operator-only implementation method.
Day 1: Kubernetes Production Deployment
Learn how to prepare a Kubernetes cluster to deploy Consul.
Maintenance and Monitoring Operations
This path includes a series of guides for advanced operations that may need to be performed after the initial setup including advanced networking, outage recovery, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Consul Cluster Monitoring and Metrics
12 minAfter setting up your first datacenter, it is an ideal time to make sure your cluster is healthy and establish a baseline. This guide will discuss Consul health and server health metrics.
Monitoring Consul with Telegraf
12 minIn this guide, you will use Telegraf to visualize Consul metrics.
Adding & Removing Servers
12 minThere are several methods for adding or removing servers from the Consul cluster. Learn the best practices for each method.
Autopilot
13 minThis guide covers how to configure and use Autopilot features, which helps with Raft cluster monitoring, introduces stable servers, and cleans up dead servers.
Outage Recovery
15 minThis guide outlines the processes for recovering from a Consul outage due to a majority of server nodes in a cluster being lost, which requires operator intervention.
Service Discovery and Consul DNS
Learn more about Service Discovery.
Geo Failover with Prepared Queries
12 minThis guide describes how to use Consul's prepared query capability, which automates geo failover policies for services in the case that one of multiple connected datacenters is unavailable.
External Services
17 minIt's rare to have all of your services running on nodes that you control. Learn how to register and health check services with Consul, even when they are running on nodes without a co-located Consul agent.
Service Mesh and Consul Connect
Consul connect serves as a service mesh control plane for a data plane of proxies. Learn how to allow or restrict east-west traffic using connect.
Using Envoy with Connect
12 minThis guide walks though getting started running Envoy as a Connect Proxy.
Connect in Production
12 minThis guide describes best practices for running Consul Connect in production.
Layer 7 Observability with Kubernetes and Connect
15 minCollect and visualize layer 7 metrics from services in your Kubernetes cluster using Consul Connect, Prometheus, and Grafana.
Traffic Splitting for Service Deployments
15 minIn this guide you will split layer-7 traffic, using Envoy proxies configured by Consul, to roll out a new version of a service. You can use this method for zero-downtime, blue-green, and canary deployments.
Connecting Services Across Datacenters
15 minIn this guide you will connect two services across datacenters using Consul Connect, intention replication, and mesh gateways.
Service Configuration and Consul KV
Learn more about Service Configuration and Consul KV.
Consul Template
12 minThis guide demonstrates how to programmatically render configuration files from a variety of locations including Consul KV.
Application Leader Election with Sessions
10 minThis guide describes how to build client-side leader elections for service instances, using Consul.
Distributed Semaphores with Sessions
12 minThis guide demonstrates how to implement a distributed semaphore using the Consul KV store.
Cloud and Load Balancer Integrations
Learn how Consul integrates with cloud providers, metrics tooling, and other technologies.
Load Balancing with F5 and Consul
12 minIn this guide you will use Consul to configure F5 BIG-IP nodes and server pools based on changes in Consul service discovery.
Load Balancing with NGINX and Consul Template
12 minIn this guide, you will use Consul template to update NGINX load balancer configurations based on changes in Consul service discovery.
Load Balancing with HAProxy Service Discovery Integration
15 minThis guide describes how to use HAProxy's native integration to automatically configure the load balancer with service discovery data from Consul.
Consul-AWS
12 minThis guide describes how to use Consul-AWS to sync the services in an AWS Cloud Map namespace to a Consul datacenter or vice versa.
Introduction
5 minNow that you have deployed your first Consul datacenter, secure it.
Gossip Encryption
10 minLearn how to secure gossip communication between Consul agents for a single datacenter.
Securing Agent Communication with TLS Encryption
12 minLearn how to secure RPC, consensus, and HTTP communication by creating and deploying certificates to Consul agents.
Securing Consul with ACLs
16 minThis guide walks though securing your production Consul datacenter with ACLs.
Managing ACL Policies
13 minIn this guide, you'll learn how to discover the minimum privileges required to complete operations within your Consul datacenter and how to manage access using the operator-only implementation method.
Consul Cluster Monitoring and Metrics
12 minAfter setting up your first datacenter, it is an ideal time to make sure your cluster is healthy and establish a baseline. This guide will discuss Consul health and server health metrics.
Monitoring Consul with Telegraf
12 minIn this guide, you will use Telegraf to visualize Consul metrics.
Adding & Removing Servers
12 minThere are several methods for adding or removing servers from the Consul cluster. Learn the best practices for each method.
Autopilot
13 minThis guide covers how to configure and use Autopilot features, which helps with Raft cluster monitoring, introduces stable servers, and cleans up dead servers.
Outage Recovery
15 minThis guide outlines the processes for recovering from a Consul outage due to a majority of server nodes in a cluster being lost, which requires operator intervention.
Geo Failover with Prepared Queries
12 minThis guide describes how to use Consul's prepared query capability, which automates geo failover policies for services in the case that one of multiple connected datacenters is unavailable.
External Services
17 minIt's rare to have all of your services running on nodes that you control. Learn how to register and health check services with Consul, even when they are running on nodes without a co-located Consul agent.
Using Envoy with Connect
12 minThis guide walks though getting started running Envoy as a Connect Proxy.
Connect in Production
12 minThis guide describes best practices for running Consul Connect in production.
Layer 7 Observability with Kubernetes and Connect
15 minCollect and visualize layer 7 metrics from services in your Kubernetes cluster using Consul Connect, Prometheus, and Grafana.
Traffic Splitting for Service Deployments
15 minIn this guide you will split layer-7 traffic, using Envoy proxies configured by Consul, to roll out a new version of a service. You can use this method for zero-downtime, blue-green, and canary deployments.
Connecting Services Across Datacenters
15 minIn this guide you will connect two services across datacenters using Consul Connect, intention replication, and mesh gateways.
Consul Template
12 minThis guide demonstrates how to programmatically render configuration files from a variety of locations including Consul KV.
Application Leader Election with Sessions
10 minThis guide describes how to build client-side leader elections for service instances, using Consul.
Distributed Semaphores with Sessions
12 minThis guide demonstrates how to implement a distributed semaphore using the Consul KV store.
Load Balancing with F5 and Consul
12 minIn this guide you will use Consul to configure F5 BIG-IP nodes and server pools based on changes in Consul service discovery.
Load Balancing with NGINX and Consul Template
12 minIn this guide, you will use Consul template to update NGINX load balancer configurations based on changes in Consul service discovery.
Load Balancing with HAProxy Service Discovery Integration
15 minThis guide describes how to use HAProxy's native integration to automatically configure the load balancer with service discovery data from Consul.
Consul-AWS
12 minThis guide describes how to use Consul-AWS to sync the services in an AWS Cloud Map namespace to a Consul datacenter or vice versa.
Looking for specific Consul information? The Consul documentation provides reference material and in-depth details on: